Negros co-op’s inclusion in rotating brownouts ‘arbitrary’

BACOLOD CITY: The general manager of the local electric cooperative has expressed dismay over the inclusion of Bacolod City and neighboring areas in the rotating brownouts technically called “manual load dropping” imposed by the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP).

Sulpicio Lagarde, general manager of the Central Negros Electric Cooperative (Ceneco), on Saturday said he was surprised when NGCP informed him on Friday that they had allocated only 3.9 megawatts to the power cooperative.

“If NGCP can arbitrarily decide on who goes out and who does not, what is now the relevance of us contracting with a specific plant? I can accept their reason if the plants [with whom]we have contracts are the ones not running,” Lagarde pointed out.

Ceneco has power contract agreements with Palm Concepcion in Iloilo, Kepco-Salcon in Toledo City (Cebu), Energreen in Bago City (Negros Occidental) and the Palimpinon Geothermal Power Plant (Valencia, Negros Oriental).

“They are all running,” Lagarde said.

The NGCP imposed the manual load dropping in all Visayas electric cooperatives, citing “supply deficiency caused by the outage of power plants located in Leyte.”

Lagarde said NGCP decided “on its own to divide the available power depending on the size of the distributors.”

“We have reserved power to cover our power supply needs in case there is a deficiency in the grid. We will demand a refund from them,” he added.

Lagarde said NGCP also told him that there was “market intervention last week.”

This means that the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) “can be shut down or suspended and the systems operator takes over, in this case NGCP,” he noted.

“They should respect the sanctity of the contracts we signed with the other power plants,” Lagarde said.

The Manila Times tried to get the side of NGCP but it has not replied as of press time.